In general, the traditional methods used to shape ceramics, such as slip-casting, tape-casting and hot-pressing, are slow and labor-intensive, and the green bodies that are formed by these methods are often fragile and difficult to handle. Although papermaking methods have been proposed for shaping ceramic powders, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,510,394; 3,899,555; 4,421,599; 4,521,355 and 4,525,662, these methods have several disadvantages relevant to the present invention. These prior art products cannot be fired to highly porous ceramics and the range of shapes is limited to the most simple geometric shapes.